I have moved my blog over to my new website  I would love to see you over there I will keep this blog live for a few months until I have all the tutorials over on my new website ..read more

Here is the completed free unicorn and princess embroidery pattern along with a colouring page for anyone who would like to do a bit of colouring in. princess and unicorn embroidery pattern I used a white linen but you can also use cotton.  If your fabric feels a little flimsy then once you have traced the design put a second piece of fabric behind it and stitch through both layers.  I am using a 7" embroidery hoop but you can use whatever you have. I have tried to keep the stitching fairly basic but you can try out other stitches. If you have never transferred a pattern before plea ..read more

January is a month for dreaming and planning, warm winter woollies and hot coffee.  This inspired the newest lilipopo embroidery pattern 'winter coffee'.  I love the winter months for drawing and stitching, once the dog walk is done I can make myself a coffee and cosy up on the sofa and sketch or stitch the day away.  At least for some of the days of the week.  The computer part of pattern making is a little less romantic! For this pattern I have used my usual back stitch but I have also introduced quite a bit of split stitch.  I have been loving split stitch recently ..read more

I recently stitched up my unicorn pattern in purples and pinks and had quite a few requests for the colour palette.  I was trying out some of the lovely etoile threads from DMC.  They have a subtle glittery effect but are so much easier to stitch with than either the glitter or satin threads.  I loved using them.  The threads are marked with a 'c' before the number and the colours correspond to colours that already exist.  So, for example I used 603, a pink thread and c603, the equivalent etoile thread in the same colour. So here is the colour palette The main body o ..read more

I think I have spent a large part of this summer trying to keep kits in stock.  In between the sea swimming and dog walking of course!  I have discovered that I love screen printing, I didn't expect it to be fun but it is so I'm thinking of creating more designs along the lines of the lavender girls.  There are more lavender girl kits in stock at the moment after a few days of printing and packing.  It's sometimes difficult to find a balance between all the admin, printing and packing that goes into the kits and actually designing new work but this September is going to b ..read more

It's been a while since I was last here but I have been working on a pink version of the mermaid pattern in order to create a kit so I thought I would add the colour guide here for anyone who has bought the mermaid pattern in the past and would like to stitch her in pink The colours I used DMC 3733 dark pink     DMC 3047 pale yellow DMC 761 mid pink     DMC 945 pale orange DMC 225 pale pink     DMC 922 burnt orange DMC ecru     DMC 598 light blue DMC 451 brown      DMC 3849 turquoise ..read more

It has been such a long time since I last wrote here, an unexpected break.  At first it was caused by getting caught up in Christmas busyness and then a long slow start to 2019.   Last year, when I shared a picture of my little pincushion I had quite a few requests for a pattern or kit for it.  So, months later, I have designed a pattern for it along with a couple of other possible colour palettes.  It could be made up into a pincushion or a lavender bag or even a panel on a little purse. Kits are more of a difficulty because I really like this design on the Robert K ..read more

Autumn has been here for a little while, in fact we are heading towards winter although it still feels mild.  Last week the sun shone and the sea looked swimmable, I couldn't quite bring myself to get in but J braved it and enjoyed it. Now I'm enjoying drinking oat milk hot chocolate and stitching Putting up the tree for a kit while listening to Ruth Rendell on an audio book. I have also been learning new things on Adobe illustrator so I can improve and simplify some aspects of my patterns.  I will admit that this was more fun than I expected it to be!  Creating colour dia ..read more

I would like to say I'm sorry I've been away because I've been so busy but the truth is we have had a long long dry summer with warm weather and we are lucky enough to live in Cornwall.  Usually August is wet and I get lots of work done but this year I got lots of sea swimming and walking and beach stitching and sketching done but not so much sitting at the computer work done!  In fact the sun has come back to us over the last few days so we are experiencing a little bit of a second summer (although not quite as warm).   With lots of time for stitching I decided to stitch ..read more

My sketchbooks tend to be filled with drawings of flowers and my camera is filled with photographs of flowers at this time of year so it's no surprise that my stitch play has been just a little inspired by flowers too. These woven roses are some of the simplest and most satisfying stitching I have done recently.  I love the way you can play with them.  You can use one colour or an array of colours.  You can use two strands or all six strands.  Your base stitches can be simple long straight stitches like spokes or detached chain stitches to create leaves underneath the flow ..read more